Google’s virtual Lego set brings new meaning to the phrase Not Safe For Work

We’re bringing you this news on the understanding that should you be at work, you don’t act on the following information until you’re on your own time, as there’s a very real chance you’re going to get absolutely zero achieved today should you ignore our advice.

Google has introduced Build with Chrome, where you are given a small plot of land on a Google Map of Australia and New Zealand, and a collection of Lego bricks with which you can build any model your imagination allows. Once you’re happy with your creation, it can be shared over Google+ and remains in place forever.

Just to reiterate, this is an official, online Lego set, and it’s all yours to do with almost as you please. Office managers of the world, we’re sorry.

Virtual Lego creativity

Created to celebrate 50 years of Lego in Australia and New Zealand, once you’ve chosen or have been allocated a spot of Lego land, you’re given 1,000 Lego bricks of 12 different designs and 10 different colors, and almost free rein to create exactly what you want.

It’s all in 3D, so you can spin your model around and view it from multiple angles, and zoom right in to reveal all the little details too. At first, the choice of different bricks looks restrictive, but as any dedicated Lego builder knows, it’s all about using them creatively, and you’ll be surprised at what you can build despite there being no rounded corners in sight. Special door and window pieces are also included, and you can travel around the map to see all the other Lego models for inspiration too.

Build with Chrome is an official Chrome Experiment, a place where Google’s army of developers usually showcase exactly what’s possible using a browser these days, and it’s somewhere else we don’t recommend visiting during office hours.

Build with Chrome could be expanded beyond Australia and New Zealand in the future, so if you don’t live in either of those places, the opportunity to build a Lego facsimile of your own home on its spot in Google Maps may still come.

In the meantime, please, think of the world economy and use Build with Chrome responsibly.